How to Install and Uninstall Optional Features in Windows 11?

Optional features as the name indicates are additional functions which you can install and uninstall in Windows OS without separate apps. Windows 11 comes with some preinstalled features like Facial Recognition for Windows Hello, IE mode in Edge, WordPad, and system Notepad. You can manually install additional features like enabling XPS Viewer or disable the preinstalled features if you do not want them.

Install Optional Features

• Right-click on the Start menu icon and select “Settings” to open Windows Settings app.
• Go to “Apps” section and click on the “Optional features” section.

• Click “View features” button showing against “Add an optional feature” option.

• You will see a list of features along with the size. Select one or multiple features that you want to install and click “Next” button.

• You will see a summary of the selected items and click on “Install” button.

• You will see the selected items are installed under “Recent actions” section and wait for the progress to finish.

Uninstall Optional Features

You can find all manually installed and preinstalled features under “Installed Features” section. Select the item that you want to remove and click “Uninstall” button.

The selected item will be uninstalled successfully and you can see that under “Recent actions” section.

You can anytime click the “See history” button against “Optional features history” heading to view the history of installed/uninstalled items.

Complete List of Optional Features in Windows 11

Here is a complete list of preinstalled and available optional features in Windows 11.

Preinstalled Optional Features

• Extended Theme Content – additional theme content like wallpapers.
• Facial Recognition for Windows Hello – enable Windows Hello login with facial recognition.
• Internet Explorer Mode – allow to open old incompatible webpages in Edge browser using Internet Explorer mode.
• Math Recognizer – control for mathematical inputs.
• Notepad (system) – basic Notepad app for text file editing.
• OpenSSH Client – secure shell client for managing keys.
• Print Management – managing printing devices and servers.
• Steps Recorder – record walking steps which you can save or share.
• WMIC – Windows Management Instrumentation command-line tool.
• Windows Media Player Legacy – for playing media files.
• Windows PowerShell ISE – Integrated Scripting Environment with syntax highlighting for PowerShell editor.
• WordPad – app to open and edit text files in .txt, .docx and .rtf formats.

Other Available Optional Features

• Supplemental fonts package for languages – Arabic, Bangala, Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics, Cherokee, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Devanagari, Ethiopic, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Hebrew, Japanese, Kannada, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Malayalam, Odia, Pan-European, Sinhala, Syriac, Tamil, Telugu, and Thai. 
• EMS and SAC Toolset for Windows (client edition) – Emergency Management Service and Special Administration Console toolset.
• Graphics Tools – for DirectX support
• MSIX Packaging Tool Driver – for converting win32 apps to MSIX format.
• Microsoft WebDriver – hosting for EdgeHTML platform with automated testing for Edge browser.
• OpenSSH Server – SSH server for managing keys and remote access.
• RAS Connection Manager Administration Kit (CMAK) – profile creation for remote networks and servers.
• Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) – for monitoring and reporting network devices.
• TPM Diagnostics – diagnostics information for Trusted Platform Module.
• WMI SNMP Provider – enables using information from WMI through CIM model.
• Windows Storage Management – additional storage management features.
• Wireless Display – wireless projection using Miracast.
• XPS Viewer – read, copy and sign XPS documents.

Adding Additional Windows Features

Scroll down to the bottom on “Apps > Optional features” settings page. Click on the “More Windows features” link showing under “Related settings” section.

This will open Windows Features dialog box where you can enable or disable useful additional features.

Windows will add or remove the selected features and show a message that the requested changes are completed. You can add useful features like SMB server, Microsoft Print to PDF and Microsoft XPS Document Writer from this Windows Features pop-up.

Note that you can also enable or disable these Windows Features from Control Panel app. Open Control Panel by searching and go to “Programs” section. Click “Turn Windows features on or off” link under “Programs and Features” section.

This will open the same “Windows Features” pop-up where you can enable or disable the available features.